It took no less than 11 phone calls and 3 carefully planned pre-harvest site visits by 2 people. The kha-noon. By the end of the week, it was "the god-damn kha-noon", "the bloody kha-noon"....
Every time my cell phone bleeped and we saw it was our landlady calling, we got hopeful that maybe the badly leaking roof or the very-dodgy-electricity repair projects might be moving forward. But no, she was calling about the kha-noon. Again. Thai people take their fruit very seriously!
What is a kha-noon? A jackfruit. A BIG tropical fruit that, once you have a tree in your garden, becomes a community asset. Apparently. The fruits grow up to 50 kg (110 pounds) but this one was only about 12 kgs (27 pounds or so). It was keenly observed, checked, monitored, tapped and smelled for the best part of the week prior. It would be fair to say that our 71 year old landlady, who was born and grew up in the old traditional Thai teak house her parents built and which we now rent, is a specialist regarding the moods and fruiting cycles of the various traditional Thai fruit trees in the garden.
Would a one-third share of it be enough for us? Oh yes. More than enough. It's not our fav fruit by a long shot.
Would it be OK if the old uncle next door did the cutting, since he knew exactly how to cut it? He would then leave it unopened till it burst its skin with ripe perfection, and then divide it. One day too late and left unsupervised, and a million fruit flies set up house.
Would we be home Monday at 8am for the old uncle to step into the garden to inspect it up close? Errr no. But he's welcome when he needs to check it, even if we are out.
Would it be OK with us, since technically it is our kha-noon, if the landlady gets a one third share and the old uncle takes one sixth and gives the final sixth to the other tenant across the soi? Fine. Whatever.
The strange thing is that jackfruits are REALLY common and many houses have them. This whole intense thing about the kha-noon bewildered me before it was cut, and bewilders me still.
And then one day we came home and the old uncle met us out near the driveway, proudly pointing to the kha-noon. In a bucket, by his back door. Cut. Down. Harvested.
Well at least all the phone calls can stop! I muttered to myself.
And then three days later, as I was opening the shutters and the bifold wooden doors across the front of the house at 5.30am, the old uncle appeared. Pounced actually. With huge pieces of kha-noon for us. He had cut and divided the kha-noon the evening before and was clearly a little put out that we had not been home.
What does one DO with so much fruit?! My 13 year daughter, Ploi (aka 
Jackfruit is a subsistence food in many countries, since it's incredibly nutritious and a good source of protein, even if it isn't in our top 10 fruits to rush out and buy. Indeed, why would one ever NEED to buy it, since it is sooooo abundant and grows all year round? You can learn more about the incredible nutrition facts of jackfruit here: https://www.organicfacts.net/jackfruit.html The health benefits are so amazing (yup, read the linked article and be amazed!) that I'm really grateful for the kha-noon obsession and a freezer full of morning-super-smoothie ingredients.
But given the abundance of its fruiting (Damn, we have another 8 fruits rapidly ripening!) I am THIS WEEK gonna experiment and learn to cook Thai curry from the young, green immature jackfruit. To at least reduce the intensity of the community fruit processing angst. :) Immature green jackfruit is used in northern Thai curries and apparently has both the texture and taste of pulled pork. Yes, I'm sure a post and a rough how-to-recipe are in my future. AFTER the Sri Lankan green mango curry, so I can buy some green mangoes from Jek tomorrow. See my post https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@artemislives/menus-and-menu-plans-and-how-they-damage-our-organic-farmers if that means nothing to you. :)
BlissednBlessed. Gifted every day. Enjoying the bounty of Mother Earth. Learning to live & eat more sustainably and flow with the seasons and abundance of our organic farmers.
@ecoTrain
Eco-Green-Sustainable content on Steemit
Supporting People Who Help Make The World A Better Place
Discover previous ecoTrain magazines at @ecoTrain or read more here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@ecotrain/what-is-the-ecotrain-in-a-nut-shell
If you are new to Steemit, love to write, and would like to join the ecoTrain community as an official passenger, please email to steemit.eco.train@gmail.com
Proud member of the SMG – supporting quality steem content & cutting edge community initiatives on the blockchain. You can find us on discord